When problems in the church of Jerusalem threatened to take too much time and energy from the apostles, they appointed men to take care of these problems. The apostles were determined to give themselves “continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:4). In this statement, we find the first ministry of the church: the ministry of the word.
No church is worth its salt in the eyes of God unless it is founded on and focused on the ministry of the word of God. This means that the leadership of the church should be spending time in God’s precious word and basing their preaching and teaching on the Bible and its truth. Modern churches continually water down the effects of the word and replace it with other elements: psychology, entertainment, socializing, etc.
The idea is that people will not come to hear the word of God any more, so we must give them something else. While it may be true that many will no longer tolerate the teaching and preaching of the word, there are many of God’s people who are starving for some true Bible teaching. At Antioch, we count the ministry of the word as one of our primary callings from God.
